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Czechs, Bulgaria Join East Bloc Allies in Military Cuts

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From Associated Press

Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia announced Friday they will follow their Warsaw Pact allies and cut troops and defense spending.

Only Romania, increasingly isolated in the Soviet Bloc, has not made a similar announcement.

Czechoslovakia said Friday it will cut defense spending by 15% and trim its armed forces by 12,000 troops, 850 tanks, 165 armored vehicles and 51 fighter planes in the next two years.

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Hours later, the Bulgarian state news agency BTA announced that the government approved a motion from Communist leader Todor Zhivkov to reduce the country’s 1989 defense budget by 12% and its armed forces by 10,000 personnel.

By 1991, Bulgaria also will scrap 200 tanks, 200 artillery systems, 20 aircraft and five naval units, BTA said without elaborating.

Troop Strength

According to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Bulgaria has 135,000 troops under arms and Czechoslovakia 145,000.

East Germany, Hungary and Poland all have announced cuts in military manpower and spending, following the lead of Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev who said Dec. 7 he would reduce the Red Army by half a million service personnel by 1991.

The cuts seem designed to boost new NATO-Warsaw Pact talks on reducing conventional troops and weapons across Europe, to open in Vienna in March.

They also benefit the Communist governments by freeing funds for sorely needed economic reforms and by creating pressure for NATO to follow suit with cuts of its own.

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A spokesman at the Western military alliance’s Brussels headquarters said Thursday the recently announced Soviet Bloc reductions still leave a “great imbalance” in Europe, with Western ground troops outnumbered almost 2 to 1.

Unilateral Contribution

CTK, the official Czechoslovak news agency, billed the measures as a unilateral contribution to boost confidence and security in Europe. Prague would contemplate more cuts if the West follows the East’s lead in cutting forces and armaments, it said.

The Czechoslovak army’s reserve force would lose 15,000 troops and the number of divisions involved in military maneuvers and tactical exercises would be halved, according to CTK.

It said 20,000 soldiers now on active duty will be transferred to army construction brigades, while the equipment for three more divisions would be put into storage and most personnel from those divisions diverted to other duties.

The cuts in Czechoslovakia, East Germany and Hungary are in addition to those announced by Gorbachev, who told the United Nations on Dec. 7 that 50,000 Soviet troops and 5,000 Soviet tanks would be withdrawn from those nations.

Soviet defense officials have said partial withdrawal could begin as soon as April.

East Germany has said it would cut its armed forces by 10,000 soldiers and reduce defense spending by 10%. It also will scrap 600 tanks and 50 warplanes.

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Hungary already has cut its military budget by 17% in real terms from 1988, and in December announced plans to retire more than 50 top officers who are over 60 years old, including 10 generals.

Poland said it has reduced its army by 15,000 troops during the past two years and will dissolve two divisions in 1989 and reduce two more by 85%.

It also said its military budget for 1989 is $1.9 billion, representing 3.6% of this year’s national income compared to the 1988 budget’s 3.8% of the year’s national income.

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